Thinking about the ingredients of American education

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Tag Archives: professional development

The birth of my daughter five years ago began a new chapter in my personal and my professional life. Since that time, I’ve been out of the traditional classroom and have been finding my own ways to engage in the field of education. Enter: Twitter.

I’ll be honest. I scoffed at my younger brother’s use of Twitter six years ago. I may as well have been Lady Grantham considering electricity for the first time. “A tweet?” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Indeed!” (Ok, I didn’t really say that last part, but man I love that layered and politely condescending expression.)

Lo, these many years, and here I am, a Tweeter with Peeps. I’ve drunk the Kool-aid and it is a tall glass of professional development, education news, and networking potential. (Also pee-your-pants memes and one-liners and weather updates, but I digress.)

It was through Twitter that I first came across The Compelled Educator, otherwise known as Jennifer Hogan. I’ve been following her (that’s the most stalkerish phrase I’ve ever had to use) and reading her blog for several months now. A few Saturdays ago, I participated in a #satchat she hosted that focused on blogging. A few days later, I received a tweet inviting me to become a part of the Compelled Tribe of bloggers.

And here we are today. This is my first post as an official member of the tribe. I’ve been assigned to a subset of the tribe that is “Fueled by Wennstrom.” I think that means someone named Wennstrom will send me coffee once a week, but I’m not completely sure. Either way, I’ll be writing two blogs a month (Accountability, thou art a stern mistress of production), one of which will be on an assigned topic and one on a topic of my choosing.

It’s been a while since I’ve had co-workers, so I’m thrilled to be part of a group of educators who genuinely love learning and have sought to carve a space in this field for their own voices. Our nation’s future hinges on the degree to which we are successful in educating future generations. What’s more compelling than that?